1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cellular mobile communication networks, for example Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular networks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings shows parts of a cellular mobile telecommunication network according to the Telecommunication Industries Association (TIA)/Electronic Industries Association (EIA) Standard TIA/EIA/IS-95 of October 1994 (hereinafter “IS95”). Each of three base transceiver stations (BTSS) 4 (BTS1, BTS2 and BTS3) is connected via a fixed network 5 to a base station controller (BSC) 6, which is in turn connected to a mobile switching center (MSC) 7. The BSC 6 serves to manage the radio resources of its connected BTSs 4, for example by performing hand-off and allocating radio channels. The MSC 7 serves to provide switching functions and coordinates location registration and call delivery.
Each BTS 4 serves a cell 8. When a mobile station (MS) 10 is in a so-called “soft hand-off” (SHO) region 9 where two or more cells overlap, a mobile station can receive transmission signals (downlink signals) of comparable strength and quality from the respective BTSs of the overlapping cells. Transmission signals (uplink signals) produced by the mobile station (MS) can also be received at comparable strengths and qualities by these different BTSs when the mobile station is in the SHO region 9.
FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings shows a situation where the MS 10 is located within the SHO region 9, and is transmitting such uplink signals that are being received by plural BTSs 4. According to the IS95 standard, a BTS 4 that receives such an uplink signal from the MS 10 relays the signal to the BSC 6 via a dedicated connection line of the fixed network 5. At the BSC 6, one of the relayed signals is selected based on a comparison of the quality of each of the received signals, and the selected signal is relayed to the MSC 7. This selection is referred to as Selection Diversity.
Similarly, FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings shows a situation where the MS 10 is located within the SHO region 9 and is receiving downlink signals from plural BTSs 4. According to the IS95 standard, downlink signals received by the BSC 6 from the MSC 7 are relayed to all BTSs 4 involved in the soft hand-off via respective connection lines of the fixed network 5, and subsequently transmitted by all the BTSs 4 to the MS 10. At the MS 10 the multiple signals may be combined, for example, by using maximum ratio combination (MRC), or one of them may be selected based on the signal strength or quality, i.e. using Selection Diversity as for the uplink case.
In contrast to, for example, Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) networks, in CDMA networks each BTS 4 transmits at the same frequency. Consequently, careful control of transmission power must be maintained to minimize interference problems.
Signals are transmitted as a succession of frames according to the IS95 standard. As FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings shows, each frame is of duration 20 ms, and comprises sixteen 1.25 ms time slots. In each time slot several bits of user data and/or control information can be transmitted.
Power control of transmissions from the MS 10 to the BTSs 4 (uplink power control) in IS95 is achieved as follows. When a BTS 4 receives a signal from the MS 10 it determines whether a predetermined property of the received signal (for example absolute signal level, signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), bit error rate (BER) or frame error rate (FER)) exceeds a preselected threshold level. Based on this determination, the BTS 4 instructs the MS 10 either to reduce or to increase its transmission power in the next time slot.
For this purpose, two bits in every time slot of a pilot channel (PCH) from the BTS 4 to the MS 10 are allocated for uplink power control (see FIG. 4). Both bits have the same value, and accordingly will be referred to hereinafter as the “power control bit” (or PCB) in the singular. The power control bit is assigned a value of zero by the BTS 4 if the MS 10 is required to increase transmission power by 1 dB, and a value of one if the MS 10 is required to decrease transmission power by 1 dB. The BTS 4 is not able to request directly that the MS 10 maintain the same transmission power; only by alternately transmitting ones and zeros in the power control bit is the transmission power maintained at the same level.
When the MS 10 is in a SHO region 9, the MS 10 is required to make a decision on whether to increase or to decrease uplink transmission power based on a plurality of power control bits received respectively from the BTSs 4 involved in the soft hand-off. Consequently, an OR function is performed on all the power control bits. If the result of this OR function is zero then the MS 10 will increase power on uplink transmissions, and if the result is one then the MS 10 will decrease power on uplink transmissions. In this way, uplink transmission power is only increased if all BTSs 4 ask for an increase.
Power control of transmissions from the BTS 4 to the MS 10 (downlink power control) in IS95 is achieved as follows. When the MS 10 receives a downlink signal from a BTS 4 (or from each of a plurality of BTSs 4 in soft hand-off operation) via a traffic channel (TCH), the FER of that signal is calculated by the MS 10 this reflects the degree to which the traffic-channel signal has been corrupted by, for example, noise. This FER is then relayed by the MS 10 to the BTS 4 which transmitted the downlink signal concerned, and the BTS 4 uses this FER to decide whether to make any change to its downlink transmission power.
The soft hand-off system described above is effective in improving signal transmission between the MS 10 and the network when the MS 10 is located in regions of cell overlap near the boundaries of the individual cells. Signal quality in these regions when using a single BTS 4 may be relatively poor, but by making use of more than one BTS 4 the quality may be substantially improved.
However, the IS95 soft hand-off system has the disadvantage of increasing signal traffic (“backhaul”) in the fixed network 5 since it is necessary to transmit signals carrying the same data and/or control information between the BSC 6 and every BTS 4 involved in the soft hand-off for both the uplink and downlink cases described above. This duplication of information is undesirable for two main reasons. Firstly, it leads to more traffic congestion in the fixed network. Secondly, higher costs are experienced by the mobile service provider (and consequently the mobile service user), who may not own the fixed network infrastructure.
Therefore it is desirable to provide an improved soft hand-off method capable of affording the usual benefits of soft hand-off while at the same time reducing the load on the fixed network.